Paint the town red

Chapter L

As Fred advised, I took the day off and won't be back to work until Monday. So on Friday I slept until almost noon, but I felt that I needed such a long sleep. After waking up, I immediately reached for the phone to look not at the time, but at the notifications. It's an old habit, nothing much.

While I was lying in bed, I could hear music playing in the kitchen - Yuki often cooked to music, he says it makes him more fun. The music was playing softly, so I definitely didn't wake up because of it. I rolled over on my back and stared at the ceiling as usual. Maybe it's worth changing the ceiling tiles, because in this one I've already learned the location of all the folds on the patterns.

I lay in bed for about half an hour, and all this time I just stared at the ceiling while I tried to think of something to do with myself other than self-reflection and thoughts about Max. As a matter of fact, I didn't have anything good in my head, so I got out of bed and went to the shower. Right now, what I most want to do is take a hot shower to relax, if not mentally, then physically so.

Entering the bathroom, I undressed and entered the shower stall, where I immediately turned on the hot water. Literally immediately, I felt my muscles begin to relax under the hot jets, and thoughts about work began to gradually recede. Hot water relaxes, but I felt a real influx of energy, so after a shower I decided to go for a run, especially since the weather was quite nice for that.

After taking a shower, I left the bathroom and immediately put on my jogging clothes, grabbed my headphones and phone from the table. I like to do sports with music, so I think less about fatigue and just enjoy the process.

When I left the room, I went into Yuki's kitchen to say hello and at the same time tell him that I was going jogging. As I thought, the neighbor was in the kitchen, but he wasn't cooking, but cleaning. I knocked on the wall, drawing attention to myself, and Yuki turned to me, waving some kind of rag.

"Are you up? I thought you'd be sleeping all day."

"I'd love to, but I have to put my energy somewhere."

"And where are you going?"

"Jogging. I want to take my mind off things. Or did you want me to help you here? If so, I have no problem, only..."

"No! You'd better get some fresh air, and I like to do this kind of thing myself."

I nodded and said that I had my phone with me and he can call me any moment. And when I was leaving the house, I heard the familiar lines from the pop princess song "Mama, I'm in love with a criminal".

"Yuki, are you kidding me?"

"What? That's a music channel, not my music."

I rolled my eyes and left the house, where I plugged in my headphones and turned on my music. At such moments, I'm glad that I have a separate playlist with instrumentals, so at least by chance I won't stumble upon songs about breakups or, even worse, about love. Pulling up the hood of my windbreaker, I went out for a run. I didn't set an exact route for myself, so I just ran wherever my eyes looked.

The music was playing pleasantly in my headphones, there weren't many people outside, the weather was great, so this run will obviously do me good. While I was running, I tried not to get close to those areas with which I had some memories with Max, and even more so those places where the bodies of my friends were found. I was more concerned about other issues now, for example, what should I expect from the court? What will happen then? Should I stay in the police at all? Since the first two questions depend on the judge's decision, the third one depends only on me. I have never thought about quitting my job, but I don't know how I'll be able to continue working after everything that has happened. If it wasn't about me personally, then I wouldn't even think about it, but just work, but when I'm involved in this, then difficulties arise. How will I be treated at the station now? To be honest, I've never really cared about the opinions of others, but when it can directly affect your work, it becomes an important aspect. Unpleasant, but important.